Speed Limits
by Drina
Summary: Spoilers: Vortex (Season 2 Episode 1) Summary: After leaving the Torch office, Chloe met Lex on her way home. Added part 2. Story now completed 7/5/2003
1. Part 1

Title: Speed Limits 1/?

Author: Drina  
E-mail: feisty_drina@yahoo.com  
Rating: PG

Distribution: Just tell me about it  
Pairing: Chlex friendship   
Genre: Episode-based, angst

Disclaimer: I SO do not own any of these characters at all. If I do, Lex and Clark would be at my beck and call ;)  
Spoilers: Vortex  (Season 2 Episode 1)

Summary: After leaving the Torch office, Chloe met Lex on her way home.

AN:  1. My first try at writing Smallville fiction, so I'll need all the help I can. Hope this does not suck too much. 2. When I saw Chloe crying at her Mac as she deleted the pictures of her and Clark at the dance, I was so sad for her that I cried too.

Part 1

Chloe walked along the road on her way home, her steps heavy and her eyes on the ground. She felt so despondent. Clark was her first love and there were so many memories associated with him too. She had even given her first kiss to him…

***********

When she first laid eyes on him, she knew that he was the one. He was gorgeous, even at that age, with oversized hands and feet that he would eventually grow into. He gave her that smile, a warm, fully sincere smile, and that was it.

She had kissed him in his Fortress of Solitude because she just could not resist him anymore, but when he looked back at her with those big, shocked, puppy eyes, she immediately tried to save her pride, "Don't worry, Clark. I know you have been thinking of kissing me the whole day, and I just thought we were get this over with, so that we can be friends. I think we definitely would be better off as friends."

**********

As she reflected back to that moment, she thought she must have cursed herself then. 'No wonder Clark only sees me as his best bud', she thought bitterly. She picked a pebble viciously. Just then a Porsche sped by her at a speed that was definitely above the legal speed limit. No question about the identity of that driver: Lex Luthor. 'How I wish I could be in that car right now, driving at more than 100miles per hour, and being able to leave all my sadness behind.'

A horn blared and she looked up. She saw Lex Luthor leaning against the side of the car, as if waiting for her. As she approached him, she saw that he was not his usual smirky self. "Miss Sullivan," he nodded his head.

"Mr Luthor."

"Need a ride back?"

"You offering?"

"I don't see other people around, do you?" he retorted.

Chloe sighed. She was just not up for verbal judo that day. "Can it, Lex." His eyebrows rose at her calling him by his first name. "I'm in no mood for a sparring session today."

He looked at her, and his eyes seemed to soften. "What's wrong, Chloe?" He asked in a gentle voice.

"None of your business," she said in a brusque tone. She immediately regretted saying it when she saw his eyes hardened and he retreated into himself once more. "Wait, I'm sorry, Lex. I shouldn't have taken that tone with you. I'm so miserable today and I so want to hit out at someone, and since you're here…you're my target. But you don't deserve it."

He just stared at her and she shifted uncomfortably at his scrutiny. "Is the ride offer still up for grabs?" A nod was her answer and as he moved to enter his car, she put a hand on his arm to stop him. He looked at her questioningly. "Do you mind if I drive?"

Still not saying a word, he walked to the passenger side of the car. Chloe sighed, "Man, this is going to be one uncomfortable ride."

Comments?


	2. Part 2

Disclaimers and such in part 1

Part 2

She settled down into the driver's seat and fastened the seatbelt. Then she turned to him, "Look, I'll apologize again. It had been a totally sucky day for me. I told Clark that we're better off being friends, and he agreed with me…no arguments at all! And then just now in the Torch office, I was deleting the photos of Clark and I at the prom, but when it came down to it…I find myself not being able to delete them at all. So right now, they're sitting in the 'Recycle Bin', a pathetic reminder of our so-called 'relationship.'"

He looked at her and said quietly, "I accept your apology."

"Good." 

She gunned the accelerator down on the Porsche, glad that they're in Hickville, because that was a wide, empty span of road for her to go as fast as she want, cows wandering onto said road exempted. She grinned at the responsiveness of the Porsche engine, where it smoothly transited from zero to eighty miles per hour. As she relentlessly pressed the accelerator down, the speedometer showed that she was traveling along speeds of 150 miles per hour. She laughed at the sheer power that was under her hands, the sights at the side all blurred and indistinguishable. This was definitely what she needed.

Lex looked at her. The girl who had been walking so despondently on the road when he past her by was no more. He had stopped because her aura had struck an echoing resonance in him. Suddenly he felt that he had to tell her what had happened to him. He touched her leg gently. She turned to look at him and implicitly knew what he wanted. So she took her foot off the accelerator, and instead, slowly pushed the brake down.

When the car finally came to a stop, he said, "My father blames me for keeping him alive." His voice hitched at the last word. Chloe took off her seatbelt and his, and then hugged him fiercely. At her touch, he broke down.

She felt his tears soaking through her shirt and considered herself honored. The always-poised Lex Luthor had always kept his true emotions well hidden; yet here he was, shedding his tears before a teenager, and a reporter at that. But she would not cheapen this moment by writing about it and publishing it in the Torch; no, this would be a moment exclusive to Lex Luthor and Chloe Sullivan.

fin


End file.
